Meyer Lansky

Meier Suchowlanski (4 July 1902-15 January 1983), better known by his American name of Meyer Lansky, was a Jewish criminal kingpin and one of the founders of the American Mafia alongside his friend and longtime business partner Lucky Luciano. Lansky was one of the most powerful mobsters in history, although he was only ever suspected of gambling; he died in Miami Beach at the age of 80 in 1983, dying peacefully.

Early career
Meier Suchowlanski was born on 4 July 1902 in Grodno, Russian Empire (present-day Hrodna, Belarus) to a Polish Jewish family. In 1911, he came to the United States after leaving the Ukrainian port of Odessa, joining his father on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Lucky Luciano became friends and partners in crime at a young age, and Lansky arranged the murders of Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano to aid Luciano in his rise to power. Lansky and Siegel also formed the Bugs and Meyer Mob, a Jewish organized crime syndicate that was allied to certain elements of the American Mafia.

Crime kingpin
By 1936, Lansky had founded casinos in Florida, Louisiana, and Cuba, and Lansky laundered his money using a bank account in Switzerland. During the 1930s, Lansky and his mobsters also disrupted rallies of the Nazi German-American Bund in Manhattan's German Yorkville neighborhood, throwing some Nazis out of windows to show them that they would not just sit back and take their insults. During World War II, the US government hired criminals like Lansky to ensure that no Kriegsmarine submarines or German infiltrators attacked Brooklyn Harbor. After the war, Lansky was forced to abandon his friend Bugsy Siegel, as Bugsy's lousy management of the Flamingo Hotel led to many mobsters wanting him dead; he was murdered in 1947. Lansky oversaw the transition of Las Vegas from a New York-controlled city to a Chicago Outfit base, and he lost millions of dollars due to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, being chased out of the country. Lansky was left with just Las Vegas as his money maker, and he failed to enter Israel in 1970 to flee tax evasion charges. He was acquitted in 1974, and he died in Miami Beach in 1983 of lung cancer at the age of 80.